Inside the Church of All Saints in the small Hertfordshire village of Kings Langley, lays the tomb of a young woman whose bloodline flows through 600 years of English monarchy.
Anne was the mother of Richard, Duke of York, and thus grandmother of kings Edward IV and Richard III and great-grandmother of Edward V.
However, Anne de Mortimer was just 20 years old when she died in 1411.
? The eldest daughter of Roger Mortimer-Earl of March and Eleanor Holland, Anne was born into a powerful aristocratic family.
Her family’s bloodline made her a direct descendant of the Plantagenet Kings, Edward I and Henry III.
Through her Grandparents, she was a descendant of King Edward II, thus her legacy gave her a double descent from the kings of England.
Despite this, Anne is the forgotten Plantagenet….
? At the time of her birth on 27th December 1390, King Richard II was childless and his cousin, Roger Earl of March, Anne’s father, was the heir apparent.
However in July 1398, Anne’s father Roger was killed at the Battle of Kells.
His titles and claim to the crown, passed to Anne’s younger brother, Edmund.
? A year later in September 1399, Richard II was overthrown and killed by a rebel court faction led by Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt.
Bolingbroke proclaimed himself King Henry IV.
The new King recognised the potential threat the Mortimers presented, and had Anne’s brothers Edmund and six year old Roger imprisoned at Berkhamsted Castle.
? Anne and her younger sister Eleanor, remained with their mother.
According to sources, they were poorly treated by the new King.
When Anne’s mother died in 1405, the two Mortimer sisters were described as destitute.
Anne’s only income was a £50 per annum grant from the Crown.
? In May 1406, sixteen-year-old Anne married her cousin Richard of Conisburgh, grandson of King Edward III.
This was not as advantageous a marriage, for although being of royal birth, Richard of Conisburgh was extremely poor.
Their marriage took place hurriedly and in secret, without permission of the family, or the King.
It would be two years before the Pope validated their marriage in the eyes of the Church.
? Anne and Richard had two sons Henry and Richard, and a daughter Isabel.
Their first son Henry died in infancy.
It was in giving birth to her youngest son Richard Plantagenet in September 1411, that Anne died aged just 20.
? She was laid to rest in the Convent Chapel on the hill in Kings Langley alongside her husband’s father and mother ~ Edmund of Langley and Isabella of Castile.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the bodies were reburied in the Church of All Saints, lower down in Kings Langley village.
? In 1877 the tombs of Edmund of Langley and Isabella of Castile were exhumed.
There were found to be three skeletons in all.
The third skeleton was in a separate casket, and was that of a younger woman under 30 with auburn hair, believed to be Anne Mortimer.
? Anne’s son Richard Plantagenet became one of the richest and most powerful nobles in England.
His son eighteen-year-old Edward, Anne’s grandson, proclaimed himself King when he defeated the forces of Henry VI at Towton in 1461.
? Edward became King of England as Edward IV.
He established a Yorkist dynasty on the throne with his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville.
Through Anne’s children and grandchildren, the forgotten young woman who lies in the church in Kings Langley, played a pivotal part in British history.
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